Bug = 4 years 1 month
Bub = 2 years 3 months Linus at this age
Bud = 7 months 7 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

• Sitting unsupported;
• Moving from her tummy to sitting (via a dainty sideways arm-lean);
• Having various solids (banana, melon, broccoli, silverbeet, zucchini, toast);
• Pouring water all over herself from a sippy cup and occasinally accidentally getting it in her mouth;
• Having lots of naps in her cot;
• Getting out and about more at Playcentre;
• Had her first swim, joining Nana, Daddy and the big kids for their weekly swim (and letting Mummy come along);
• Spent two successful mornings this week at home with Nana while I took my “big” kids to Playcentre.

Bug = 4 years
Bub = 2 years 2 months Linus at this age
Bud = 6 months 16 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Zoe is doing well at moving. Her method of getting around couldn’t yet be described as “crawling”, but she loves being up on all fours – hands and knees or hands and feet! And as of this week, she’s really getting around with intent. Until now she seems to have moved by accident, but now if I put a toy in front of her she heads straight for it: she gets up on hands and knees, shuffles her knees forward, and flops down on the ground. Her legs are ready to crawl, but her arms haven’t yet worked out what their role is!

She’s also tucking one foot up under her quite often (just like Ada did). Unlike Ada, she doesn’t move from this position, but she does get up to almost sitting from lying on her tummy this way.

Her sitting skills are also developing. She can sit unsupported on the ground for very short periods, but still needs a lot of supervision to prevent her smacking her face into the ground

Bug = 4 years
Bub = 2 years 2 months Linus at this age
Bud = 6 months 16 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

For Christmas last year we received a five-person tent from Bob’s parents. Bob and I have only been (tent) camping a few times each in our lives, and never since we had children.

Pounawea Beckons

However last weekend we were invited by a friend to come with her and her family (hubby and two kids) down to the Catlins for one night, so we decided to give it a go. After buying an airbed and packing for hours and hours and hours, we headed south at 10am on Saturday morning.

The setting of the Pounawea Motor Camp is lovely. The camp is a small circular field – with amenities in the middle – surrounded by tall trees. Just through the trees at one edge is the beach onto the estuary.

Our afternoon was pleasant, and our evening was great – the kids settled down fine and we had a couple of hours together yacking by lamplight.

I was delighted with how well we slept in the tent. The “five-person” tent is obviously designed for five people who are on intimate terms. Luckily our family is, and we slept together on the single mattress and queen airbed that between them covered the entire surface of the tent.

In early the evening we wandered on the beach (where we were lucky enough to see a distant seal frolicking in the surf).  We decided not to go into the water that night: it was getting a bit cold, the sun had left the beach, and – after all – we had all of Sunday to explore the environs.

Rude Awakening

Well.

At 6am on Sunday, I started to hear a bit of noise around the campsite. There was the sound of shouting… I figured someone had hit the booze too hard over the night and managed to stay conscious long enough to annoy all the other campers. As the noise continued, I tried to doze. I remember hearing someone yelling at one point “Hey, mate, will you help me wake some people up?“. Hmmm… a rather officious and organised drunk?! But shortly the man was outside our tent, and he briskly told us to get up… a tsunami warning had been issued and we had to evacuate the site.

Talk about a wake-up call! As fast as we could, we dragged ourselves and the kids out of bed and shoved all our things into our car. This took a swift 45 minutes (hey, we had a tent to pack away!) and then we hit the road. A stop at Owaka for more information told us that Owaka was safe and the church hall was putting on coffee and toast for the evacuees.

We spent a couple of hours taking advantage of the generosity of the locals at Owaka. We  had some breakfast, got dressed, and gave the kids some drawing to do while we listened to the radio to find out the latest on the tsunami.

Our plan was to go for a local walk so that the second day of our short holiday wasn’t completely wasted. However by that time the weather had turned drizzly, so we headed back to Dunedin (via some very bad coffees in Balclutha).

We’ll try to squeeze in at least one more camping trip before winter arrives, and hopefully it will be less eventful!

Bug = 4 years
Bub = 2 years 2 months Linus at this age
Bud = 6 months 12 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

I’m really enjoying the changes Linus has been going through over the past few months. I feel like it’s a real “growing up” stage of development. He’s getting much smarter, more independent, and more useful.

Game-Playing

Recently Linus has enjoyed learning a lot of games: Hide and Seek, Concentration (aka Memory), Statues, Throw and Seek, Hide the Thimble, etc. The big change is that I feel like I’m playing games WITH him now, rather than teaching him the games. Sure, he often needs some sort of handicap or allowances made for having different abilities from mine, but once that’s sorted out we can just enjoy playing the game. I feel like it’s the start of ME getting to be a kid again!

A few months ago I heard an interview with an Australian author about her new book, Parlour Games for Modern Families, and thought it would be a great book to own. Lo and behold, in January when Bob took a trip away, he returned with the book itself as a present for the whole family. It’s now on our little family bookshelf, and every now and then I dip into it for game ideas.

Relationships with Others

Linus can speak well, and Playcentre is really helping him to develop relationships with people – both children and adults – outside our family. It’s great to think that I’ll increasingly be able to comfortably leave him on playdates with other children and their mums. In fact, he had his first such playdate this Tuesday, and spent three happy hours playing with his Playcentre friend CB (or more likely, playing with CB’s trains!).

I’m also keen to help him learn to use the phone (especially for emergency situations). Earlier this month he rang his friend SSO for her birthday. I dialled the number, then handed him the phone; he said hello to SSO’s mummy and asked if he could speak to SSO, then proceeded to have a long conversation.

Jobs Around the House

I’ve already mentioned that Linus does work around the house. There have been two more highlights in the last couple of months.

One morning Linus came into our bedroom and said he needed help. I asked him what with, and he said “opening the yoghurt”. I asked why he wanted to do that, and he said it was because he was making us all breakfast. Sure enough, when I went through to the kitchen there were four bowls  with Weetbix and milk in them (“not crunched up for Dad because he doesn’t like his crunched up“). What a darling!

Another day I had a glass that I needed to return to our recently-befriended back neighbours. It was awkward to go around there myself with three children, and I was reluctant to leave all or any of them home alone. I had a brainwave and decided to ask my free range kid to take it around to them… and to my surprise and delight, he agreed! I gave him directions, and he trotted away and did it.

He also:

• waters the garden;
• gets his own clothes so he can get himself dressed (now that I’ve moved his clothes so they’re all where he can access them);
• gets himself a drink of water or milk (if the milk container’s not TOO full).